‘I roomed with David Beckham at Man Utd and I hated it – I had two big problems with him’

Gary Neville and David Beckham might have had plenty of on-field chemistry, but it was a different story off it.

The pair spent 12 years together at Manchester United, having joined both the club’s academy and then the senior squad at exactly the same time. They quickly grew close, so they decided to bunk with one another on overnight trips.
But good friends don’t always make good roommates, as Neville found out at his cost. After six months of rooming with Beckham, the former defender was at his wits’ end after the living arrangement served up a couple of major problems.

“I roomed with David Beckham for about six months and then the whole rooming with players completely stopped because everybody went into their own individual rooms,” Neville told Sky Sports back in 2020. “I think they worked out that players weren’t compatible with each other and that each went to bed at different times.
“I had two big problems with Becks… I used to go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 5am, he would stay up until 11pm and want to wake up at 8am, so essentially he was keeping me up from 9 until 11 and then I was getting him up at 5 in the morning, so it just wasn’t working at all,” he said.

But not only were their sleeping patterns out of kilter, but their living habits drove each other up the wall too. Neville added: “Secondly, he is the cleanest person. He gets into his room, he lights candles, he puts pictures up – everything has to be absolutely perfect, it’s been the same since he was 18.
“I just throw everything everywhere, so it just did not work at all. I’m always talking, always arguing and he was the complete opposite of that. He would listen to music, he would want peace, he would want to be chilled and it’s just the complete opposite end of the spectrum of where I was at.”

Despite failing to coexist in a hotel room, Neville and Beckham forged a fantastic partnership on United’s right flank. Not only could they link up almost telepathically, but Neville’s overlapping runs often created a yard or two of space for Beckham to unleash his legendary crosses into the box.
Together, they won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the Champions League. In 2003, Beckham sealed a blockbuster move to Real Madrid, bringing his decade-long partnership with Neville to an end.
Neville went on to make over 600 appearances for the Red Devils, winning a further two Premier League titles, three League Cups, an FA Cup and another Champions League. Beckham, meanwhile, won La Liga at Real Madrid before moving on to LA Galaxy in 2007.
Later, he had loan spells at AC Milan and Paris St Germain before hanging up his boots in 2013, two years after Neville had done the same, having spent his entire career at Old Trafford.